Updated RPMs - big release chunk...

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

Hi Everyone!

I noticed a number of updated RPMs out there. Specifically what surprised me were all the NSPR, NSS and the libc, libx, libicu and libkai ones.

For those of you who may have tried the netlabs-exp test releases a while back, there were numerous problems that were identified. The biggest issue at that time was that these updates pretty much made our FF unusable.

I was one of the folks to test at that time and went through a fairly messy rollback process.

Sooo...while I'm excited to see the updates having gone to netlabs-rel, I am a little leery of installing. Therefore, I'm curious if anyone has already pushed that UPGRADE button yet and what has your experience been like so far?

[Dave Yeo]

I recently ran Netlabs-exp for a week straight, the Mozilla apps were stable. Perhaps a libc upgrade or such fixed things.
There is always the option of putting the older DLLs in Firefox etc directory so they get picked up.
Note also this update also updates some certificates (actually I think it fixes using the installed ones) such as letsencrypt's
As for these updates, you need to first update os2-base, which will make sure your platform is Pentium 4, then install dbus-libs for QT5. Then the rest should install.

[Doug Bissett]

Therefore, I'm curious if anyone has already pushed that UPGRADE button yet and what has your experience been like so far?

It appears that the switch from i686 to Pentium4 is causing some problems. I haven't investigated enough to be able to describe the problems, but it looks like it is trying to update some i686 packages with the Pentium4 packages, and it decides that there is a conflict. I expect that it will take some time to sort it out.

One odd thing, is that AOO 4.1.8, on my main machine, starts up, but as soon as it displays the contents, of whatever I open, it crashes. On two other machines, it is not crashing. I haven't had the time to try to determine what is going on, but it looks like I will have to restore the old setup, so I can get some work done. Fortunately, I have recent backups.

BWW has got a problem, where they assume that no trouble reports from people who try the experimental stuff, means that there is no problem with them. More likely, nobody is actually trying to use that stuff until it gets moved to the release repository.

Those who are looking for something useful to do, should look at doing some serious testing with stuff that shows up in the experimental repository, and report problems, before we end up with a mess.

[Roderick Klein]

Hi Everyone!

I noticed a number of updated RPMs out there. Specifically what surprised me were all the NSPR, NSS and the libc, libx, libicu and libkai ones.

For those of you who may have tried the netlabs-exp test releases a while back, there were numerous problems that were identified. The biggest issue at that time was that these updates pretty much made our FF unusable.

I was one of the folks to test at that time and went through a fairly messy rollback process.

Sooo...while I'm excited to see the updates having gone to netlabs-rel, I am a little leery of installing. Therefore, I'm curious if anyone has already pushed that UPGRADE button yet and what has your experience been like so far?

If you say something is unstable, you know the drill... :-) Please include some information, for example popuplog.os2 entries . Then we have a hint.

Thanks,

Roderick

[Roderick Klein]

Hi Everyone!

I noticed a number of updated RPMs out there. Specifically what surprised me were all the NSPR, NSS and the libc, libx, libicu and libkai ones.

For those of you who may have tried the netlabs-exp test releases a while back, there were numerous problems that were identified. The biggest issue at that time was that these updates pretty much made our FF unusable.

I was one of the folks to test at that time and went through a fairly messy rollback process.

Sooo...while I'm excited to see the updates having gone to netlabs-rel, I am a little leery of installing. Therefore, I'm curious if anyone has already pushed that UPGRADE button yet and what has your experience been like so far?

A lot of these RPM's where moved by Dmitry from BWW so we can prepapre the testing of the new Otter browser by more people. If things no longer work, let me know by sending an email to roderickklein@xs4all.nl. Please mention which program does not work after updating. What version of the browser you are running for example and send any except reports or popuplog.os2 entries.

Roderick

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

Hi Roderick,

Hi Everyone!

I noticed a number of updated RPMs out there. Specifically what surprised me were all the NSPR, NSS and the libc, libx, libicu and libkai ones.

For those of you who may have tried the netlabs-exp test releases a while back, there were numerous problems that were identified. The biggest issue at that time was that these updates pretty much made our FF unusable.
...

If you say something is unstable, you know the drill... :-) Please include some information, for example popuplog.os2 entries . Then we have a hint.

Thanks,

Roderick

My comment was related to the initial netlabs-exp testing I did when these came out some months ago. When I said FF was unusable, I mean that...the browser would go down every couple of minutes and following the initial investigation here on our forum, as well as some feedback on the AOS list I had to rollback.

Anyways, it is understood that even the smallest of changes can have a significant impact on some of the biggest applications we run.

So to follow-up on what Doug floated above: how about setting up a BWW TesterList, and perhaps even sub-dividing the RPMs into application category/function domains where each one would be spearheaded by a Lead Tester?

My thinking being: it is probably easier to "divide and conquer" this, than for a single person at BWW to deal with all the issues being reported during such testing, isn't it?

[ivan]

Hi Dariusz,

I couldn't agree more with you about the RPM's, in fact I suspect that there is very little testing of the 'updates' in real world situations.

In fact it got so bad that I have stopped applying updates to my main work computer, at least doing that I can get some work done.  On my test machine I have now equipped it with a hard disk plug in draw which allows me to install a hard disk with an image from a working unit.  If an update messes up anything it is a simple matter to pull the HD draw, slot it into a similar unit on the main machine an just re-image the disk again.  I am not a programmer so I can't be bothered trying to work out what isn't working, that is the job of those producing the updates before they release them - at least that is how it works in industry.

[Roderick Klein]

Hi Dariusz,

I couldn't agree more with you about the RPM's, in fact I suspect that there is very little testing of the 'updates' in real world situations.

In fact it got so bad that I have stopped applying updates to my main work computer, at least doing that I can get some work done.  On my test machine I have now equipped it with a hard disk plug in draw which allows me to install a hard disk with an image from a working unit.  If an update messes up anything it is a simple matter to pull the HD draw, slot it into a similar unit on the main machine an just re-image the disk again.  I am not a programmer so I can't be bothered trying to work out what isn't working, that is the job of those producing the updates before they release them - at least that is how it works in industry.

Well Bitwise Works is not IBM in terms of financial resources and man power.  You can not expect BWW to test all the stuff. They maintain with a small group other developers 300 DLL's.

If you do not want to install them, remember that they will not be tested.

What could be considered normal IT practics in the ICT industry is something which does not apply to the OS/2 community.
We simply do not have the respources for this to happen. So it happens on a best effort basis.



Roderick

[Roderick Klein]

Hi Roderick,

Hi Everyone!

I noticed a number of updated RPMs out there. Specifically what surprised me were all the NSPR, NSS and the libc, libx, libicu and libkai ones.

For those of you who may have tried the netlabs-exp test releases a while back, there were numerous problems that were identified. The biggest issue at that time was that these updates pretty much made our FF unusable.
...

If you say something is unstable, you know the drill... :-) Please include some information, for example popuplog.os2 entries . Then we have a hint.

Thanks,

Roderick

My comment was related to the initial netlabs-exp testing I did when these came out some months ago. When I said FF was unusable, I mean that...the browser would go down every couple of minutes and following the initial investigation here on our forum, as well as some feedback on the AOS list I had to rollback.

Anyways, it is understood that even the smallest of changes can have a significant impact on some of the biggest applications we run.

So to follow-up on what Doug floated above: how about setting up a BWW TesterList, and perhaps even sub-dividing the RPMs into application category/function domains where each one would be spearheaded by a Lead Tester?

My thinking being: it is probably easier to "divide and conquer" this, than for a single person at BWW to deal with all the issues being reported during such testing, isn't it?

That would be welcome suggestion. But for a start ask people how much feedback BWW and Paul Smedley get. Well not that much...
if that would happen more often, a ticket opened, that would help.  And yes not all tickets are easy to resolve or reproduce...

I have been trying to setup a server running that does checkouts in a VM then starts applications and see if they startup.  But it all takes time...

It has partly been constructed by the way.

Roderick

[Dmitriy Kuminov]

I am not a programmer so I can't be bothered trying to work out what isn't working, that is the job of those producing the updates before they release them - at least that is how it works in industry.

You are right here. And as any job this one (RPM package tester) should be paid for - at least that is how it works in industry. Currently, there is no such a position at BWW because there is no funding for that. And therefore no person that would do that job. Which leaves us with the only option: ppl do it for free, as time permits, w/o any warranty or responsibility (so no complaints accepted) and anyone who can is welcome to contribute on these terms. This is what Doug is talking about I suppose.

[Jan-Erik Lärka]

Hello,

i've had to resort to undo things by hand in command line as python 2.7 is replaced so ANPM either show nothing or other parts refuse to work.

What i've used several times:

• Unpack python 2.7 with Zippy to <bootdrive>:\usr as anpm can't use python 3.x as yum just barf
• "yum history" in cmd
• "yum history undo <number>" in cmd, where <number> is a whole number as found in 2
• Repeat 3 with earlier <number>s until you get a working system back
• Update packages one at the time if possible to see and report which one need some attention by the developer(s).

[Dave Yeo]

The next version of ANPM should work with python3.